Once
upon a time, a wee li’l monkey-child was born in the panhandle of
Texas. And then
proceeded to move to Houston; then Albuquerque, New
Mexico; then Oklahoma City;
then Carmel, Indiana; then Austin, Texas.
And then the li’l monkey was old enough
to start school. Without a
landscape to call a monkey’s own, the wee li’l monkey
adopted two
places especially: Austin and The Dinetah.The mesas will do that to
you.

My mom and I have never been on spectacular terms. We fought about the length of my hair, the clothes I wore, the interests I had and the toys I liked.

The last few times we've talked, we've finally discovered a common ground.

This last week we discussed the most innocuous of art supplies ... markers. I can remember trips to the university bookstore when I was a kid. The Grumbacher paints in their odd little containers (which I would use to make space shuttles for my action figures) ... the aisle of different kinds of pencils ... colour pencils, black pencils which were other things than a #2. And then, the big display of markers. Prismacolor markers, double-ended markers with a fine tip and a broad tip in more colours than Mr. Binney OR Mr. Smith ever thought of.

I would spend most of the time drooling over the colours, curious about the pastels and the oil crayons ... but mostly fascinated by the markers.

It was amazing to have such a wonderful conversation with her ... where she would ask questions and listen to what I had to say. We talked about techniques and papers ... and the colours available ... the fact that they're refillable and you can even change out the nibs as well.

I'm not sure if that was my Mother's Day present to my mom ... or if something else gave a much-needed present to the both of us.

All I know is that I'm incredibly grateful for it.

My sister and I proudly holding aloft one of Mom's 3D projects. They had to build and fly a kite. The star clown that Mom built from a kite-making book didn't quite fly, until she thought fast and creatively and went to a shoe store for some helium filled balloons.

(I liked her other kite best, a big rectangle made to look like an envelope ... complete with a "Return to Sender" note stamped across it. I thought that was pretty clever, too ... enough so that I hung that kite in my room for years. Sadly, I don't have a photo of that one.)

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Briefly:

Welcome to The Red Monkey Blog, where my various Los Interwebz monkikers (ender, enderFP and Red Monkey) all babble about this, that and, of course, the other.
I just moved back to Albuquerque after many long years in exile (in Indiana of all places). I am not one of the Dineh, but have been fascinated with the Navajo, New Mexico, the mesas and the desert Southwest since I was a wee li’l monkey. The main mesa pictured here and in the header is Dzlith-Na-O-Dith-Hle just south of Farmington. It’s also called Huerfano, but I prefer the Navajo even though I can’t pronounce it.
Some say I’m obsessed with old Fisher Price Little People. I think it’s a nice hobby and less damaging than say, crack. Or alcohol. Or any number of other vices. Like, you know, blogging.
Yes, yes I am a geek. Thank you for noticing.